Fabrication and characterization of novel bowknot-like CeO2 crystallites and applications for Methyl-orange Sensors

Abstract

Bowknot-like CeO2 bundles crystals were successfully prepared from a single precursor via a thermal decomposition route. The precursor was synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction using Ce(NO3)3 · 6H2O with CO(NH2)2 at 150 °C in a water-glycerol complex solution. Glycerol plays a very important role for the formation of precursor bowknot-like structures. The morphology of the precursor was maintained during the heating process. The optical absorption spectrum indicates that the CeO2 dendrites have a direct band gap of 3.42 eV, which is mostly larger than values of bulk powders due to the quantum size effect. The electrochemical characters of the CeO2 bundles structures are studied by their investigation of cyclic voltammetry (CV). It was found that the CeO2 bundles can greatly improve the electron transfer ability.

Notes

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the CREST program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50873042), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. 07KJA15011) and the Scientific Research Program of HuaiHai Institute of Technology (KQ08023, Z2008018). We are grateful to young and middle-aged academic leaders of “Blue and Green Blue Project” of the universities and colleges in Jiangsu Province. We are also grateful to the electron microscope and X-ray diffraction facilities of University of Science & Technology of China for assistance in XRD and SEM measurement.